By Liz Cunningham
The Marine Conservation Action Fund supports community-based projects spearheaded by local conservation leaders that create enduring and systemic change.
Liz Cunningham’s Ocean Hope Chronicles are dedicated to inspiring individuals who are making a difference to protect the life of the seas.
“Majority world.” My ears pricked up. I had not heard that term before.
The speaker continued. “The majority world is home to talented conservationists who have historically been underrepresented due to colonialism, parachute science, and deep inequalities in the ability to get visas to travel to conferences.”
Elizabeth Stephenson, the Director of the Marine Conservation Action Fund (MCAF), was delivering opening remarks at the 2023 MCAF Summit at the New England Aquarium. For over twenty years MCAF has operated under the aquarium’s auspices supporting community-based projects headed by local conservation leaders in the majority world.
Stephenson used the term majority world with clear intent: it refers to where the majority of the world’s population lives, without the negative and marginalizing undertones of the words “developing” and the now thankfully defunct, “Third World.”
Majority world as a term is catching on. How big is the majority world? It’s over 80% of the earth’s population. That’s where a shocking inequity surfaces. A recent study showed that only 12% of giving by foundations based in the United States went to local programs in the majority world.
“The work of these local leaders has led to significant protections for wildlife, education programs and transitions to sustainable forms of ecotourism,” Stephenson explained. The examples abound: Andrés López and Ilena Zanella founded Misión Tiburón which was instrumental in Costa Rica’s first shark sanctuary. Kerstin Forsberg, founder and director of Planeta Oceanó, led the community-based effort which achieved protection for giant manta rays in Peru.
MCAF’s focus is also a departure from what’s termed parachute science or colonial science—scientists coming in from high-income countries to do research without investment in local communities. One of the MCAF Fellows, Sri Lankan marine biologist and founder of Oceanswell, Asha de Vos, Ph.D., has championed the need to invest in local scientific talent and infrastructure.
“Asha’s focus on equity has had big influence on us,” Stephenson told me and explained how MCAF’s evolution has been driven by listening to and learning from their community of leaders.
“Equity and conservation are intertwined,” Stephenson continued. “They are goals that are integral to each other. Pursuing these goals together is the right thing to do and has not been done for so long. Conservation has suffered because of it.” The work of local leaders has produced enduring, systemic change in communities.
Local conservationists are supported through small, targeted grants up to $12,000 which give them the latitude to best address their specific needs and incorporate local knowledge. For instance, MCAF Fellow Francklin Barbier of the Haiti Ocean Project has built strong relationships with local fishers and engaged them in tagging and data collection to protect sea turtles and sharks, drawing on their local knowledge.
In addition to the granting program, MCAF has a fellowship program. MCAF Fellows remain in the MCAF community for their entire career. The summit brought them together—fourteen conservation leaders from eleven countries—to share their work and nurture new collaborations. They did everything from public presentations to sessions focused on exchanging ideas and practices to a workshop on wellness and preventing burnout. They shared their work with Boston public school students and aquarium visitors. But, two fellows were only able to participate virtually. They were subject to the inequity Stephenson referred to in her introduction. Because of their countries of origin, the U.S. visa process was so saddled with red tape and delays that they were not able to gain entry in time for the summit. It’s a common form of the inequity that local conservation leaders in the majority world face, the barriers they must surmount to participate in international events.
We know all too well how inequity and environmental damage go hand in hand. The work of MCAF shows how working towards social justice and conservation goals jointly is not only the right thing to do, but leads to positive, lasting change forged by local leaders and their communities.
“They’re the ones climbing Everest,” Stephenson said emphatically. “We are like base camp. We are here in service to them rather than directing them or taking credit. The work they are doing to save the oceans benefits the whole world.”
About the Author
Liz Cunningham is the author of the award-winning Ocean Country, with a foreword by Carl Safina. Her mission is to inspire and empower others to protect the life of this planet and achieve social justice. She writes about conservation and the traits we need to care for our planet and each other, among them courage, engaged hope, and a capacity to work together to implement solutions. Learn more about her work at www.lizcunningham.net
Additional resources:
- Learn more about the MCAF Fellows on this MCAF page and the MCAF YouTube Video Library.
- Silver, Marc, January 4, 2015. “If You Shouldn’t Call It the Third World, What Should You Call It?” National Public Radio.
- De Vos, Asha, July 1, 2020. “The Problem of ‘Colonial Science,” Scientific American.
- Needles, C., Wolcheck, D., Sato, G., Ingulfsen, I., McGill, L., Bradford, L., Ross, N., 2018. The State of Global Giving by U.S. Foundations. Council on Foundations.
This piece was prepared online by Panuruji Kenta, Publisher, SEVENSEAS Media